It was astonishing to hear a flat declaration from the President that sequestration would not happen. The fact that members of Congress sounded just as surprised by the Presidents statement last night and this morning isnt encouraging, but far less surprising  CVA has been on the record for months calling on both the administration and Congress to take action, show leadership, enact reforms, and avoid the impending meat axe. It hasnt happened.

CVA has two concerns about the Presidents statement. The first is that the President really thinks we can solve fundamental structural problems with government spending in a couple weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas  which means he has either no concept of just how out-of-control these problems have gotten, or that he has no intention to seek real reforms. This would be almost as tragic as letting the meat axe fall in January  because without real reform, its going to fall anyway.

The second is that the President was not serious, and merely used the comment as a throwaway line to divert a line of question. The speed with which his spokesmen have been walking back the statement certainly suggests this might be the case. Given the seriousness of the subject, this is profoundly disappointing.

Granny says, "Dat's right - dem politicians don't know how to do nothin' but spend money...Ryan: Sequestration Is Just Another Word for Washington DysfunctionFebruary 27, 2013  House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said that sequestration is just another word to describe the dysfunction of Washington, D.C.

We use all these Washington words, sequester, fiscal cliff, debt limit, sequestration, continuing resolution, Ryan said during a press conference on Wednesday outside the U.S. Capitol. Its all Washington words to describe the dysfunction of this town. Ryan appeared with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) following the first millennial meet up, a roundtable discussion with members of Congress and young people on how to solve the national debt, which currently stands at over $16.6 trillion. The greatest dysfunction of all is the fact that these young people standing here are facing a diminished future no matter how you slice it, Ryan said. This isnt a Republican issue. Its not a Democrat issue. Its a math issue, he said. We know without a shred of doubt we are giving the next generation a lower standard of living because of this debt.

McMorris Rodgers, the House Republican conference chair, organized the meeting with The Can Kicks Back, a self-described non-partisan, Millennial-driven campaign to fix the national debt. They told us that theyre excited about getting involved in solving the various challenges that face us, McMorris Rodgers said. But whether its education, health care, transportation, immigration, the debt makes it difficultif not impossibleto move forward on any of those issues. I am the can that Washington keeps kicking down the road, said Nick Trioano, co-founder of The Can Kicks Back. Its our hopes, our dreams and our futures that are imperiled by continued gridlock in Washington.

Ryan said he is hopeful because young people are getting involved to address the issue. What is great is we have young people here who are getting engaged, he said. We have young people who are coming to the Capitol to say, Give me my future back and stop taking it away from me. Because thats what the dysfunction of this town is continuing to do, Ryan said. Were not going to stand for that. Were going to tackle this problem before it tackles us.

Automatic, across-the-board cuts to defense and non-defense spendingknown as the sequesterare set to go into effect on Friday, after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a minimum of $1.2 trillion in spending reductions from the Budget Control Act of 2011. The reductions -- 1.2 percent of the budget and equal to $44 billion for 2013 -- were to take effect on Jan. 2, 2013, but Congress postponed the sequester until March 1 in the deal to avert the fiscal cliff in January.

Rand Paul: Sequestration doesnt cut nearly enoughMarch 1, 2013 - But it could be a good start

A study to learn whether or not a fish called the golden shiner can teach us about collective action: $5 million. A project to design beef jerky that rolls up: $1.5 million. A seminar in which a topic was, Did Jesus die for Klingons, too? (This is a question, I can assure you, that will not be answered by any sane person): $100,000. These examples of absurd government spending become even more absurd when you realize these items were all part of the budget for the Department of Defense.

I know some of this sounds ridiculous, and admittedly, the numbers are small potatoes in terms of actual dollars. But there is a lot more where these examples came from. I would run out of space far before I ran out of examples  and the numbers get bigger. Much bigger. The Department of Defense also spent more than $700 million on clean-energy research. It spent $6 billion on nondefense research and $15 billion on education. The department educates 19,000 students within its own school system at a cost of $50,000 per student, while the national average is $11,000.

Defense spends $9 billion running grocery stores. It also operates liquor stores and co-sponsored a cooking show. Do you feel safer now? I bring attention to these aspects of the defense budget in order to have a fact-based, adult conversation with the president of the United States, who seems intent on needlessly scaring Americans through the manipulation of facts, and in some cases, bald-faced lies. President Obama wants you to believe there is nowhere to cut  that the federal government is cut to the bone, and that people will lose their jobs owing to the impending sequester. As I stated last week  balderdash.

You may have witnessed Mr. Obamas histrionics recently, where President Chicken Little tried to persuade us all that if the sequester happens  and barely 2 percent of government spending is cut  we will all die. OK, he may not have said that, but I wouldnt be surprised if we learned that such hyperbolic rhetoric was removed from his speech at the last minute. I have rarely witnessed such a performance in public by anyone, let alone the president of the United States.

Does spending 98 cents instead of a dollar, really mean we're all going to die? What I like are all of the people that have shown that if the potus was really serious about cutting he'd take the money he spent on say, crayfish excerise, and pay a soldier with that instead.
We are such suckers.

You can bet your ass(ets) that Hussein will do whatever he can to disrupt life in the US in order to punish Americans for supporting a lousy 2% reduction in spending. Screw the Country. It's about Chicago politics.

We put radical Islam, a group that Egypt banned from office, in office. Now we are ignoring those poor Egyptians while they protest our choice of a ruler for them.
AND while they stand in front of the cameras and wish us a good death, we "donate" billions to their radical leaders, the ones that want to blow Israel off the map before Iran gets the gold ring.
How many soldiers, poor children, and elderly Americans could we help with billions?

We put radical Islam, a group that Egypt banned from office, in office. Now we are ignoring those poor Egyptians while they protest our choice of a ruler for them.
AND while they stand in front of the cameras and wish us a good death, we "donate" billions to their radical leaders, the ones that want to blow Israel off the map before Iran gets the gold ring.
How many soldiers, poor children, and elderly Americans could we help with billions?

Click to expand...

Yep! Barry is giving 1.5 BILLION to Egypt. Wonder what we might have done with all that money in this day and age of "sequester"?? Especially with the facts that Egypt's President believes that we are "descendants of Apes and rats" and that 9/11 was an "american job".......

$200 Million - Army Procurement of ammunition

$59 Million - US Marshalls salaries and expenses

$53 Million - Food safety and inspection service

$52 Million - FEMA Salaries and expenses

$49 Million - Federal Air Marshalls

$20 Million - Border Security

$16 Million - 9/11 Victim Compensation

$1 Million - Military Defense Nuclear waste disposal

And to think of all the gnashing of teeth that was done by the White House......

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